Like a lot of kids who came of age in the 1960s, Rocky Powell would often grab his Super 8 camera and film everything from the happenings outside his house to the surfers in the waters off the San Diego County coast.

Some five decades later, the Emmy Award-winning Oceanside resident is poised to join the ranks of Hollywood movie directors.

His first feature-length movie — a romantic comedy filmed in New York, Illinois and Texas — has won the Best Picture Award at the California Independent Film Festival and the Audience Favorite Award at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival.

“Language of a Broken Heart” will make its Oceanside debut today at the Regal Oceanside Stadium 16. For showtimes, visit www.fandango.com/92054_movietimes

“Making a feature film has always been in my blood,” said Powell, 58. “It’s just taken a while.”

Powell owns a beach home off Cassidy Street in Oceanside, but spends much of his time in Dallas. He grew up in Pasadena and spent many of his summers surfing in North County.

Powell began his career as a commercial photographer with a niche in advertising.

His production company, Rockhouse Films, specializes in commercials, and its client list includes heavyweights such as Walmart, Southwest Airlines and Lowe’s Home Improvement stores.

He earned an Emmy in 2009 for his work on the “I Am CNBC” promotional campaign.

How did he go from commercials to a movie? “It was a lot of things coming together,” Powell said. But he gives much of the credit to screenwriter and lead actor Juddy Talt.

Talt is the son of a good friend, Powell said, and was looking for a role after graduating from USC with a degree in theater and film. He decided that the best way to land a job was to write a script and cast himself in the lead.

Powell was game. Problem was, the movie would be a road-trip flick, the type of movie that can cost far more money than Powell had raised.

Talt came up with another idea.

“He had just gone through a pretty bad breakup with a girl,” Powell said.

Suddenly, a new script was crafted. The movie would be about a best-selling author on love who reflects on his numerous romantic failures after finding his fiancée with another man.

“Language of a Broken Heart” was filmed in 18 days and cost less than $500,000 to produce. Cast and crew were on location for two days in New York and one day in Rockford, Ill. The rest of the movie was filmed in and around Dallas.

Much of the preproduction work took place in Powell’s Oceanside home, a modest abode that he has owned for more than 30 years. Break time was mostly spent surfing.

Reviews haven’t been great, but they haven’t been horrible, either.

The New York Daily News wrote, “Nothing terribly special here, but perfectly played and a spiritual cousin to such early ’90s indies as “Naked in New York” and “Ed’s Next Move.”